Challenging the stigma of premarital sex in urban Afghanistan

Bibliographic Data

ID15099731
AuthorsRaheleh Sadeghi (0000-0002-7024-2924, University of Tehran, corresponding author), Victor Agadjanian (0000-0002-9639-1485, Department of Sociology and the International Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA)
Year2022
Volume24
Issue9
Pages1181-1198
Publication date2022-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture Health & Sexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-1058 • E-ISSN: 1464-5351
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13691058.2021.1936185
PMID34288835
OpenAlexW3183659163
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited43

Premarital sex is normatively unacceptable in Afghanistan, yet rapid social and cultural transformation in the country may be changing these traditional norms. In dialogue with cross-national scholarship, we examine attitudes toward premarital sex and experience of premarital sexual behaviours among urban Afghan youth. We use data from 1256 never married individuals aged 15-29 surveyed in ten Afghan cities. The results show that respondents, on average, have moderately liberal attitudes toward premarital sex and that almost one quarter of them had engaged in either sexual foreplay or penetrative intercourse. Multivariable results indicate that premarital sexual attitudes and behaviours were significantly associated with several individual-level characteristics, family and intergenerational relationships, and social ties and interactions. At the same time, instructive gender variations emerge. The findings illustrate the dynamics of premarital sexual relations in this and similar contexts where such relations are traditionally stigmatised but multifaceted, societal changes increasingly challenge this stigma

Afghan · Political science · Premarital sex · Scholarship · Sexual behavior · Sociology · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology